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Curiosity Rover Drills on Mars

NASA's Curiosity Rover drilled deep enough on Mars to get a powdered sample for analysis.

2 holes were drilled by Curiosity - a test hole which is 16mm wide and 20mm deep, and the hole the sample was taken from which is 64mm deep.

The drill is on the end of the robots 2.2m long robotic arm. They checked the machinery was operating as it should by hammering it down on a rock target. The next step was turning the drill in the chosen rock to cut a hole that was 2cm deep. Finally, they drilled a second deeper hole that the sample was taken from.

Curiosity Rover is in Gale Crater, which is a deep bowl on Mars. It is there to investigate whether this location ever supported life. The best way for them to do this is to analyze the inside of rocks.

The Curiosity engineers waited 6 months before using the drill tool.

The flat slabs of rock that Curiosity has drilled into have been called John Klein after a Curiosity engineer who died in 2011. The rocks are located about half a km from the robot's point of touchdown in a depression called Yellowknife Bay.

Chemin and Sam are two labs in the Curiosity rover that will be analyzing the rock samples. Instruments will determine the rock sample's chemistry and mineralogy, and identify any carbon chemistry.

Chemin will analyze the rock first because the findings from Chemin will influence the settings run in the Sam experiments.

Drilling produced a fine powder that the Curosity was able to pick up. It was pushed into the sample acquisition chamber.

Some of the sample will be used to scrub then inside of the machinery to get rid of any contamination that may have travelled with Curiosity from Earth to Mars.

The rest will be sorted to a size and volume that can be put inside the labs on the rover.

This is a first in planetary explanation - the inside of a rock on another planet has never been probed in this way before.

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Lee County Domestic Animal Services reports two men have been cited in separate bestiality cases involving dogs.

Thomas Linville, a transient, was charged under Florida statute for an incident that occurred July 20.

Both cases involved witnesses who reported the incidents to authorities, according to the release.

The Lee County Sheriffs Office used a search warrant to remove Griffins dog from his home. Animal Services took custody of the animal. Linville chose to voluntarily surrender his dog to Animal Services.

Lee County ordinance and Florida statute prohibit bestiality, and Animal Services considers crimes of this nature to be particularly cruel and disturbing, according to the release.

Anyone with information regarding animal abuse is asked to call Animal Services at 239-533-7387. To be eligible to receive a reward for information leading to the arrest of the person responsible, contact Southwest Florida Crime Stoppers at 1-800-780-TIPS.
Full text of the Florida Statute and Lee County Ordinance that prohibit bestialityFlorida Statute 828.126 - Sexual activities involving animals

As used in this section, the term: Sexual conduct means any touching or fondling by a person, either directly or through clothing, of the sex organs or anus of an animal or any transfer or transmission of semen by the person upon any part of the animal for the purpose of sexual gratification or arousal of the person. Sexual contact means any contact, however slight, between the mouth, sex organ, or anus of a person and the sex organ or anus of an animal, or any penetration, however slight, of any part of the body of the person into the sex organ or anus of an animal, or any penetration of the sex organ or anus of the person into the mouth of the animal, for the purpose of sexual gratification or sexual arousal of the person.

A person may not: Knowingly engage in any sexual conduct or sexual contact with an animal; Knowingly cause, aid, or abet another person to engage in any sexual conduct or sexual contact with an animal; Knowingly permit any sexual conduct or sexual contact with an animal to be conducted on any premises under his or her charge or control; or Knowingly organize, promote, conduct, advertise, aid, abet, participate in as an observer, or perform any service in the furtherance of an act involving any sexual conduct or sexual contact with an animal for a commercial or recreational purpose.

A person who violates this section commits a misdemeanor of the first degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or s. 775.083.

Lee County Ordinance 88-49 C. It shall be unlawful for any person or owner or group of persons to inflict pain, suffering, bloodletting or death of an animal for sacrificial purposes, including consumption during a sacrifice ceremony, and for any person to molest or penetrate any animal or use the body parts of an animal for sexual gratification.

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